Many NGOs start at a local level where language translation is not an essential need. However, with time the NGO grows, and they are now able to reach global audiences. Therefore, translation is undoubtedly a crucial need worldwide because NGOs need to convey their impactful messages to a global audience.
Translating a message from one language to another can be pretty stressful. Translation also needs a professional and expert touch. You don’t want to convey a message that means differently to various communities.
Fortunately, there are also a good number of online tools that one can use for translation. One of the tools is Google Translate, which people use to translate words.
How Does Google Translate work?
Since its launch in 2006, Google Translate has become the internet’s go-to platform for quick translations. The platform faced stiff competition after its launch with Babel fish. Now, Google Translate boasts over 500 million users offering over 103 language translations.
At first, Google translate was based on statistical machine translation. This means that the platform would first translate the target word to English as an intermediary step language. The translated word would then go through a cross-referencing process with millions of documents online.
The translation results from this original process were imperfect, but with time Google Translate has significantly advanced. Now Google works with a complex and advanced learning machine known as ‘the neural network learning.’ The machine takes the whole phrase into a full context instead of translating words in isolation.
Many people still consider Google Translate a joke, but others are still using it to translate shorter words and phrases. The truth is that Google Translate works well when translating short words and phrases. However, trying to translate long texts would become a big challenge.
Although translating experts would tell you to avoid machine translations, the truth is that Google Translate has been of great help sometimes. However, Google Translate and other similar technologies have some undeniable downsides.
The platform uses a universal cloud to provide translations to its users. This means that as you pick out information from this universal cloud, you also put yours out there. Unfortunately, it also means that your confidentiality is not guaranteed.
Another downside is that there is no way that the translation you get will be completely accurate. Moreover, most machine translations lack the human understanding of the language complexity.
For NGOs with a global audience, you must ensure that all your translations are superb. The only way to ensure this is to consider hiring trusted, reliable, and experienced translation companies to handle your translation needs. A translation company allows for accurate translation and confidentiality of the work you entrust to them. In addition, translating companies guarantee excellent quality of work, therefore, allowing you to save money and your time.
Translation Tips For NGOs
Translation done correctly has a lot of advantages that NGOs can enjoy. Let’s look at some of the tips NGOs can use to make translation work for them:
1. Reaching a Larger Audience
NGOs need to pass their efforts and purpose message to their audience locally and globally too. Translation services enable them to reach many people in their audience. However, no matter how good you think your organization’s cause is, the level at how much you convey to your audience matters.
A good message can only be welcomed well if its audience understands it. Also, the approximated number of the audience that receives your messages as an organization will depend on how well the audience understands your message.
Translating also affects your online audience. For instance, if a person wants to learn something, they will only visit a website with a language they understand. Therefore, it is also wise to translate your website’s content into different languages to invite more audiences interested in your cause. It also sets your organization apart and makes it stand out among its competitors.
Getting a translation service like the Etcetera Language Group to translate your NGO’s information is a great tip when you want to reach a larger audience, whether globally or locally.
2. Enhance Relationships
Communication across different languages has a huge gap, but translation helps bridge the gap. Bridging the gap and enhancing communication also establishes good relationships between other NGOs and with audiences.
Eventually, these relationships are responsible for an organization’s growth. Improper translation directly affects NGOs’ relationships negatively. For example, if an organization is having a meeting with an international audience, they will need to have an accurate translation. If the message they are relaying is not accurate, the audience may interpret the message incorrectly, which may even risk the NGO’s relationship with their audience.
3. Retain Professionalism
Passing your message across in a polished and cohesive manner makes people trust your organization and its message more. Therefore, there is no excuse for slacking off in professionalism for NGOs.
A professionally translated message that feels original is better than a poorly translated message that would drive potential contributors and beneficiaries away.
4. Retain the Nuances of Your Message
With the increase in the number of translation software in the market today, one would wonder why they need to hire translation services. Well, with programs, as we stated earlier, the translated message will never be 100 percent accurate.
Getting a translation service to handle the translation for you gives you a human touch for the translation. With a combination of digital programs and human translation services, you will not only get 100 percent accurate translation, but you will also retain the nuances of the message you are passing.
A digital translating program may lose the cultural and linguistic nuances of a language, but with a translation service compatible with you, these aspects will be retained.
Bottom Line
Compared with having digital programs do your NGOs translation, working with translation services ensures that you get the accuracy of your translated message. It takes the stress out of having to diligently look at your translated text for possible errors because there is a nil possibility of errors.
Translation companies like Etcetera Language Group are experienced enough to bring out the real message your NGO might have. They are translation experts. Therefore, they are careful enough not to mess with the nuances of a language that could cause incorrect translation.